The world of motor racing farewelled Valentino Rossi with honors after his retirement from the MotoGP world championship at the end of last season, however, the Italian will continue to be linked to the circuits, since he will contest his first campaign on four wheels in 2022.
Someone who could help a lot in this decision was Lewis Hamilton, the seven-time F1 world champion, with whom he shared a historic track day in Valencia in 2019 and where the Mercedes car and the Yamaha M1 were exchanged.
Both were in a talk with one of their sponsors, IWC, and in it they commented on what it meant to be a pilot. In one of the moments, the Briton explained the feeling of speed involved in getting into a car in the highest category of motorsports, as well as recalling how dangerous it is.
Throughout the more than seven decades of history of the Great Circus, dozens of pilots have lost their lives aboard their single-seaters, and it is not a thing of the past. Since the death of Ayrton Senna in 1994, F1 cars have given way to a technological revolution to improve safety and, since then, only Jules Bianchi has died in an accident in an official race.
This was one of the reasons that accelerated the entry of the famous Halo, which has saved more lives, such as that of Charles Leclerc in the 2018 Belgian GP, or that of Lewis Hamilton himself in Monza last year.
“I have to look at the steering wheel to realize how fast I’m going,” acknowledged the seven-time champion speaking to Valentino Rossi . “You don’t really feel like you’re doing anything over 300km/h, you’re very used to that, but when you’re on a bike, you feel like you’re going fast, it’s an exciting experience.”
“I have also skydived, and every time you jump you go into shock, but when you get used to it, you are more comfortable, you have a lot of muscle memory,” said Hamilton, who shortly after referred to a few words of the Italian legend in which he said that F1 drivers and MotoGP drivers are linked to each other.
“I think MotoGP is more risky, they don’t have belts, when they have an accident, it’s very strong. It’s very difficult for them to improve safety, so the fear factor is always there,” said the Englishman.
“It’s been like this for years, maybe they’ve had improvements in traction control, but normally you can keep getting blown up,” the Mercedes driver said. “In our sport, everything has become safer, when you have a big crash or go out on fire, the drivers go out.
“We have gone from something that was very dangerous and where people were losing lives many years ago, to the good direction, but we see what they do (the MotoGP riders) and you think they are going at 360 km/h at the end of the straight. It’s unbelievable,” added the Briton.
